Find out what job suits you
- 1. Get to know yourself
- 2. Create your career vision
- 3. Set your career goals
- 4. Create a career plan
1. Get to know yourself
If you do not know what job or internship you would like or what your life will look like after graduation (i.e., you do not have a career vision), follow these steps. The first step is to get to know yourself. Self-assessment will also be useful when introducing yourself to an employer, as you will need to name your strengths or areas for improvement.
Self-assessment entails the collection, analysis and evaluation of information about yourself. There are two ways to learn more about yourself: by chance or by conscious effort. It is the conscious way that we will present in more detail below.
Get to know your interests
First of all, it is important to recognise and name your interests. You might identify them by considering what activities you are genuinely interested in. Here are some ways to learn more about your interests:
Get to know your values
Values reflect what is important and meaningful to you and what is not. Here are a few ways to recognise your values:
• Define the values that are important to you when choosing a profession or a job;
• Reflect on the career decisions you have already made (e.g. think about how you chose a profession, studies, work during the summer holidays, etc.). Then evaluate what was important to you when choosing one or the other alternative.
Identify your strengths
The third step for getting to know yourself is to identify your strengths, i.e. talents, competences and personal qualities. You can learn about your strengths in these ways:
- Try different personality questionnaires and assess whether you have the personality traits valued by today's employers – responsibility, honesty, perseverance, flexibility, initiative, independence, creativity, etc.;
- might also help when choosing a career path;
- Take specialised tests and questionnaires designed to assess specific competencies, or take exams for such assessment. For example, by taking a mock online driving test, you can test your theoretical knowledge of driving.
Other ways for getting to know yourself
Ask for feedback from your friends, colleagues or supervisors about your skills, competences and personality. Do not be afraid to ask their opinion about your performance on different tasks, inquire what they see as your strengths and areas of improvement.
Analyse your successes and failures. Personality, talents and competences are best revealed through real-life experience. So do not be afraid to take on new activities, feel free to experiment. As you reflect on your experience, assess what competences, personal qualities or talents have led to success. If you failed, reflect on what skills or competences were missing or need to be improved.
Analyse collected information
Once you have collected all this information, review it. What tendencies do you see? Summarize and identify 5 key topics of interest, 3–5 values and make a list of 10–20 talents and skills. Maybe you can already see what profession you can apply it all to? If it is still difficult to see yourself in a large amount of information, take the next step – create your career vision. It will narrow down your professional goal to one sentence. Then all you will need to do is to figure out what work, studies, internships or additional activities can help you achieve it.
Useful services
Career counseling
If it is not enough to do the exercises listed above and you still feel confused, or you are one of those who find it easier to solve problems in a dialogue – go for career counseling. We provide career counseling remotely every working day. Sign up for a career counseling session via e-mail or phone (00370 5) 236 6253.
Training
Training and events on self-assessment are constantly held at VU Career Centre.
All events are announced on and in our Training and Events Calendar (the dates in the Calendar are preliminary and may be changed).
2. Create your career vision
A career vision is an image of a future career that you want to pursue. A vision answers the question – what do I want to achieve? Here are some examples of how visions can be formulated:
- "By applying innovative farming methods, I will make my parents' farm prosperous and famous all over Lithuania. Others will follow its example and gain experience."
- "I will become a well-known mathematics teacher in Lithuania, whose students will win at the Republican and International Mathematical Olympiads."
- "I will be the head of a large construction company, working with great enthusiasm to achieve the highest quality for my clients. I will also always be a caring father to my children."
How to do it?
A good vision inspires you to act. Therefore, it is very important that it is created according to your personality, sincere desires and dreams, and not just based on common sense and deduction. Here are some tips to help you build a good career vision:
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Allow yourself to dream about what you want to do in life. Write down your dreams, for example, make a list of 100 dreams (this will be great material for your career vision).
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Review the information you wrote in the self-assessment step.
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Set your life priorities, identify what is most important to you – work, family, or maybe a pleasant pastime or spiritual development? It is important to merge this with a career vision.
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Look at your life from a future perspective - imagine how you would like to live it, what aspirations you would like to acheve, what would you like to create and leave behind. The following exercise might help you. Imagine that after 150 years someone is writing your biography. What would they write? Which achievements would be described? What challenges would you have faced? Who would have helped to overcome them? Write it down.
Useful services
Career counseling
If it is not enough to do the exercises listed above and you are still feeling confused, or you are one of those who find it easier to solve problems in dialogue – register for career counseling. We provide career counseling remotely every working day. Sign up for a career counseling session via e-mail or phone (00370 5) 236 6253.
Training
Training and events on self-assessment are constantly held at VU Career Centre.
All events are announced on and in our Training and Events Calendar (the dates in the Calendar are preliminary and may be changed).
3. Set your career goals
You already have a career vision, so now you can set career goals and plan specific tasks to achieve those goals. These can be plans related to studies, job search, promotion, starting a business, and so on. Examples of goals:
- Master's studies
- Head of Sales department
- Psychologist position at school
- Summer internship
- A small business
- Volunteering in Africa
Set deadlines by which the plan must be implemented.
Formulate tasks
Assign tasks to each plan. The SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) methodology is particularly suitable for this.
- Tasks must logically lead to the set goals. For example, if you want to find a job, the tasks can be: creating a job search strategy, preparing a resume (CV) and a cover letter, sending documents to potential employers, and so on.
- The task must be formulated clearly so that you can implement it and easily answer whether the task has already been completed, and the goal has been achieved (e.g., a CV has been prepared, a job offer has been received).
- Plan realistic tasks and deadlines, assess available resources, time, situation in the job market.
- Avoid both too easy and too difficult tasks – they reduce motivation. And most importantly, not only plan, but act. Do it proactively and boldly without fear of making mistakes!
In today's world, things change fast, so your plan needs to be flexible. You will need to review and adjust it from time to time in light of ongoing changes in the economy, societal needs and career opportunities. It is also very important how your interests, values, talents, qualities and competencies change as you change. Maybe you discovered a new talent and acquired qualities you would like to realize? Go ahead!
Useful services
Career counseling
If it is not enough to do the exercises listed above and there is still confusion in your mind, or you are one of those who find it easier to solve problems in dialogue – go for career counseling. We provide career counseling remotely every working day. Sign up for a career counseling session via e-mail or phone (00370 5) 236 6253.
Training
Training and events on self-assessment are constantly held at VU Career Centre.
All events are announced on and in our Training and Events Calendar (the dates in the Calendar are preliminary and may be changed).
4. Create a career plan
After completing all the steps up to this point, you are ready to put everything you have learned about yourself into a plan.
What is a career plan?
It is a certain sequence of actions that, after completing it, could give you the education you want and a job you enjoy. A career plan can be written down or can be kept in mind. The written plan is always more convenient and effective – it is clear, precise and comprehensive. In addition, you will be able to keep such a plan for a long time and not forget important details, and you can share it with a career counselor or other people at any time. Any career plan is useful as long as it allows you to move toward your desired career. It is therefore important to choose a form and structure that is comfortable and acceptable to you. Usually, the following parts are included in career plans:
- key information about yourself and your career prospects;
- career vision;
- long-term and short-term career goals;
- the sequence of actions that need to be taken over a certain time to achieve the set career goals.
The resources required to carry out the action may also be indicated in the career plan. As nowadays a career is inseparable from learning, it is important to include learning and development goals in your career plan, too.
Why is career planning beneficial?
Learning to plan is important for the purposeful and consistent pursuit of career goals. A career plan for someone who cares about a personal career is as necessary as a strategy for any organisation. If you do not have a plan – you cannot purposefully build a career. Then you can become a part of someone else’s career plan.
Career planning for you can be helpful because the plan:
• Gives career a direction. A successful career is usually not achieved in a day, a week, or a month. It takes time (studies alone take several years), effort, financial investment. A career plan will allow you to pursue your goals in a purposeful way, to approach them step by step, without being distracted by small things and without suffering from constant doubts. If you have a plan, it is likely that even if you move slowly, you will reach the goal much faster than those who have no plan and get stuck without getting close to the career of their dreams.
• Helps to focus effort and resources. The career goals will become the guideline, that you will use to make day-to-day decisions. You will not waste your energy, money and time on those activities that do not help you achieve your goals.
• Helps to learn purposefully. By knowing what you want to achieve, you will be able to systematically accumulate the competences needed for a career, pay less attention to secondary subjects.
Create your career plan
You can create a career plan can on your own or with a career counselor. You may download the template here.
Useful services
Career counseling
If it is not enough to do the exercises listed above and you are still feeling confused, or you are one of those who find it easier to solve problems in dialogue – register for career counseling. We provide career counseling remotely every working day. Sign up for a career counseling session via e-mail or phone (00370 5) 236 6253.
Training
Training and events on self-assessment are constantly held at VU Career Centre.
All events are announced on and in our Training and Events Calendar (the dates in the Calendar are preliminary and may be changed).